September 13, 2013
The eTail Blog: Three Retail Tips on Using Facebook
Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of an article from The eTail Blog, a source of exclusive content generated by and for the e-commerce community.
During his presentation at eTail East, Nicholas Franchet, head of global e-commerce for Facebook, noted that global e-commerce sales are expected to surpass $1.2 billion in 2013. In order for individual e-tailers to harness a share of this thriving market, it is imperative that they try to find the consumers who are right for their brand. An easy way to do this is, of course, is through Facebook.
Mr. Franchet suggests keeping the following three ideas in mind when deciding to use Facebook to increase market share:
1. Discovery: Facebook is constantly developing new tools to help brands, and the company’s online stores target the audience that best suits the stores’ product. The company has tools like the standard audience tool, which uses Facebook’s data to position products, as well as the modeled audience tool, which uses a brand’s own data to position its products. As opposed to other marketing outlets, such as TV or radio ads, the accuracy of this kind of targeting is remarkably high, he claims.
2. Seasonality (Timing): Use Facebook as a tool to position products during certain times of the year, such as holidays, which further enhances the accuracy of a brand’s targeted ad.
3. Compression: With Facebook ads, brands have to be very specific about what content they want presented in the ad. Thus, they must compress the information they want to share into the most relevant combination of words in order to further target their ad.
For Mr. Franchet, a well-targeted message on Facebook, whether it is through sidebar ads or newsfeed ads, is a value-added message. Following the above tips should lead to an increased value in your message, which leads to a higher ROI.
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Discussion Questions
Which of the suggestions offered by Nicholas Franchet – discovery, seasonality, compression – should retailers particularly focus on to optimize Facebook results? What lessons should retailers have learned by now around Facebook as an engagement tool?
Poll
I looked at my Facebook and didn’t see any ads. The screen is small on my net book sidebar and ads don’t show unless I scroll. I forgot Facebook had ads. The one I saw was for stem hair growth and there is another too small to make out. So my suggestion would be to create an ad that is relevant to me and also visible.
The targeting of the audience (Discovery) and specificity of the message (Compression) tend to force the advertiser, retailer, or CPG brand to generate a compelling message to capture readers’ attention. I think this is a good tool for advertisers — as good as any, actually. With diminishing returns coming from traditional media, I think advertisers need to try and measure the ROI on this and other social business tools… many of which are not tied to a specific social channel (e.g., Facebook).
The tips seem quite basic and could apply to any type of advertising. I’d focus on using the medium’s characteristics that can help a retailer to deliver a relevant, personalized message. Lots of ways to accomplish this on Facebook and get the right ad in front of the consumer – just don’t go to the eerie point.
I agree with the importance of Discovery, but not for the reasons Mr. Franchet outlines.
Discovery as “opportunity to see” (to borrow a phrase from in-store media) is paramount in a media property with as low a click through rate as Facebook.
Placement really matters. Ads in the newsfeed have 1/3 the cost per click of ads in the sidebar. And ads in the mobile newsfeed have 1/2 again the cost per click of the desktop newsfeed, according to eMarketer
Virality is also essential to discovery. According to Techcrunch, of the 100 most popular offers on Facebook, 75% of claims came from people how saw the offer via sharing.
Even with targeting tools like Custom Audiences, Facebook is a media property with about a .04% ad click rate compared to a .1%+ global average. Facebook users generally ignore ads, so marketers need to work especially hard to get their ads discovered.
I access Facebook only through my phone and it is almost ad free. I agree with David, I forgot that Facebook had ads. My Facebook page looks completely different on my laptop and mobile. I barely access it through my laptop. The biggest aspect of targeting should be device and form factor to ads to succeed.
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I looked at my Facebook and didn’t see any ads. The screen is small on my net book sidebar and ads don’t show unless I scroll. I forgot Facebook had ads. The one I saw was for stem hair growth and there is another too small to make out. So my suggestion would be to create an ad that is relevant to me and also visible.
The targeting of the audience (Discovery) and specificity of the message (Compression) tend to force the advertiser, retailer, or CPG brand to generate a compelling message to capture readers’ attention. I think this is a good tool for advertisers — as good as any, actually. With diminishing returns coming from traditional media, I think advertisers need to try and measure the ROI on this and other social business tools… many of which are not tied to a specific social channel (e.g., Facebook).
The tips seem quite basic and could apply to any type of advertising. I’d focus on using the medium’s characteristics that can help a retailer to deliver a relevant, personalized message. Lots of ways to accomplish this on Facebook and get the right ad in front of the consumer – just don’t go to the eerie point.
I agree with the importance of Discovery, but not for the reasons Mr. Franchet outlines.
Discovery as “opportunity to see” (to borrow a phrase from in-store media) is paramount in a media property with as low a click through rate as Facebook.
Placement really matters. Ads in the newsfeed have 1/3 the cost per click of ads in the sidebar. And ads in the mobile newsfeed have 1/2 again the cost per click of the desktop newsfeed, according to eMarketer
Virality is also essential to discovery. According to Techcrunch, of the 100 most popular offers on Facebook, 75% of claims came from people how saw the offer via sharing.
Even with targeting tools like Custom Audiences, Facebook is a media property with about a .04% ad click rate compared to a .1%+ global average. Facebook users generally ignore ads, so marketers need to work especially hard to get their ads discovered.
I access Facebook only through my phone and it is almost ad free. I agree with David, I forgot that Facebook had ads. My Facebook page looks completely different on my laptop and mobile. I barely access it through my laptop. The biggest aspect of targeting should be device and form factor to ads to succeed.